Of course he needs a mention in this section, BB King.  He is definitely the most famous of the three King’s. In my eyes he’s the man who brought the blues to the attention of a bigger audience. I am a real fan of this man. There are, in my opinion, very few artists that can bend their snares like B.B. His typical opening tunes in a slow blues make me melt. His performances are always intens due to his enormous love for his audience and the respect he shows for his band.

A lot has been written about this man. Beautiful stories that I won’t repeat now. I am going to talk about my bond with B.B. First of all I’ll see what I have of B.B. King in my collection. I’m counting twenty seven LP’s, ten CD’s and nine DVD’s. And then I’m thinking back to the many gigs I’ve been to. The last one is still fresh in my memory. It was at the Ahoy in Rotterdam during his European farewell tour. Of course I had to be there, to see my hero for one last time.

My version of the gig was: “B.B. is almost eighty years old, but he’s still just as enthusiastic, good voice, full of humour and he plays brilliantly. The familiar guitar riffs and beautiful intro’s again sounded great. Hats off to him for delivering at such old age.

It wasn’t goodbye though, because he still performs regularly and again this year he was at the North Sea Jazz Festival. The concert that’s made an impression on me is the one from the 1990’s in the concert building of Amsterdam. A beautiful hall where you don’t find a blues concert every week. B.B. was very much in the public eye then because of his hit ‘When Love Comes To Town’, from the late eighties. A number, specially written for him by Bono (a nice detail is that U2 recorded the studio version of this number along with B.B in the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis). The most surprising of this gig was his dedication. No one expected B.B. to perform this number live. The public went crazy once they recognised the opening tunes of the song. To be honest, it was a messy performance but nevertheless brave.

In October 2008 I had the opportunity to visit Tennessee and Mississippi. Of course I regularly bumped into B.B.’s memorabilia. In the visitors centre of Memphis stands a gigantic statue of the man. In Nashville and also in Memphis you can find a B.B. King blues club. In these clubs you can listen to the better blues bands whilst enjoying a drink and delicious BBQ ribs.

I also visited Indianola where B.B was brought up. Recently, a beautiful B.B King museum was built. Of course I was B.B himself who opened it. “If heaven is a beautiful as I feel today, I’m ready to go tomorrow’ he said after the opening. The museum shows a beautiful insight of his career and the time in which he grew up.

Al in al a fine walk ‘Down Memory Lane’ with B.B King, I thought. In my opinion, only one person has the right to the title ‘King Of The Blues’ and that is of course Riley B. King.

Video’s:
B.B King - How Blue Can You Get
B. B. King - The Thrill Is Gone (From B. B. King - Live at Montreux 1993)

Websites:
www.bbking.com
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.B._King
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.B._King

Translation by: Marleen Crook-Geebelen

Videos